You are here

The Ultimate Home Tour: The Study

Samantha Brooks

APRIL 01, 2006

Working for clients who own part of the San Francisco Design Center could intimidate some designers, but Suzanne Tucker was not fazed by the prospect. The San Francisco design veteran, who is well regarded for her knowledge of antiques, deftly applied her skills to this 7,500-square-foot Bay Area residence. “My clients asked for a jewel box,” Tucker says of the house’s owners, who belong to an investment group that owns the design center. “They love rich layers and textures and wanted a room that would transition well from a private work space to a public entertaining space.”

The owners originally requested a library, but they preferred richly textured walls over bookshelves, and so the room became the wife’s study. A member of the San Francisco Opera Guild’s board of directors, she uses the space as an office and for other charity work with the city’s Junior League. The study also serves as an intimate area for enjoying after-dinner drinks or hosting small social gatherings. The furnishings are as varied as the room’s uses.

“The room may mix antiques with animal prints, but what really makes the space stand out is the combination and mixture of furnishings,” says Tucker, who chose pieces that vary in origin from Asia to France to England. “It has more of a collected look than an eclectic look. I wanted the room to look like it was put together over many years, and I wanted to give each piece its own place.”

Among the room’s highlights is a 19th-century French black lacquered bureau plat, which Tucker paired with an armchair with a 22-karat gold finish. Above the 18th-century German mantel is an early-18th-century German giltwood pier mirror flanked by a pair of 19th-century French sconces. These Tucker finds complement the owners’ 19th-century black lacquered cabinet with mother-of-pearl inlay. Although the furnishings date to different eras, they mix comfortably in the room, just as guests do.